While there has been some improvement in mean scores in Years 3 and 5 since NAPLAN began in 2008, the latest results show there has been no improvement to speak of in Years 7 and 9 — and their writing scores have declined since 2011 in several states.
In terms of the proportion of children who failed to achieve even the National Minimum Standard (NMS) — which is low compared to international benchmarks — there has been no improvement anywhere.
Billions of dollars of extra funding has gone into schools in recent years, yet there appears to have been little pay-off in what should be the core job of schools — teaching children to read, write and do maths. This is because extra funding has little impact on student achievement if teachers are not using the most effective teaching methods.
For example, the NSW government Early Action for Success central literacy program, ‘L3’, was not properly trialled and tested before being implemented to more than 400 schools. It does not meet the criteria for evidence-based reading instruction identified in scientific research, including an absence of systematic phonics instruction.
Funnelling more money into programs that are not truly evidence-based will not help children achieve higher literacy levels.
The NAPLAN reading assessment is a broad measure that flags only that a student is having difficulty, but not why. The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check (PSC) proposed by the Australian government earlier this year will be an early marker of which children are struggling with this fundamental skill and which schools are not teaching it well. Since the Year 1 PSC was introduced in English schools in 2012, the failure rate in Year 2 reading comprehension tests has declined by 30%. We can only hope it will have the same effect here.
Dr Jennifer Buckingham is senior research fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies www.cis.org.au and director of the FIVE from FIVE reading project www.fivefromfive.org.au.
This is an excerpt of an oped that appeared in The Australian.
Home > Commentary > Opinion > Funding fails to pay off in student results
Funding fails to pay off in student results
In terms of the proportion of children who failed to achieve even the National Minimum Standard (NMS) — which is low compared to international benchmarks — there has been no improvement anywhere.
Billions of dollars of extra funding has gone into schools in recent years, yet there appears to have been little pay-off in what should be the core job of schools — teaching children to read, write and do maths. This is because extra funding has little impact on student achievement if teachers are not using the most effective teaching methods.
For example, the NSW government Early Action for Success central literacy program, ‘L3’, was not properly trialled and tested before being implemented to more than 400 schools. It does not meet the criteria for evidence-based reading instruction identified in scientific research, including an absence of systematic phonics instruction.
Funnelling more money into programs that are not truly evidence-based will not help children achieve higher literacy levels.
The NAPLAN reading assessment is a broad measure that flags only that a student is having difficulty, but not why. The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check (PSC) proposed by the Australian government earlier this year will be an early marker of which children are struggling with this fundamental skill and which schools are not teaching it well. Since the Year 1 PSC was introduced in English schools in 2012, the failure rate in Year 2 reading comprehension tests has declined by 30%. We can only hope it will have the same effect here.
Dr Jennifer Buckingham is senior research fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies www.cis.org.au and director of the FIVE from FIVE reading project www.fivefromfive.org.au.
This is an excerpt of an oped that appeared in The Australian.
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